{"id":91627,"date":"2020-04-12T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=91627"},"modified":"2020-04-12T07:23:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T11:23:07","slug":"easter-and-the-coronavirus-an-interview-with-south-carolina-bishop-mark-lawrence-by-joy-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=91627","title":{"rendered":"Easter and the Coronavirus–An Interview with South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence by Joy Hunter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop, for many of us this will be the first time in our lives we won\u2019t be in church on Easter morning. No Easter lilies; No packed crowd singing \u201cWelcome Happy Morning;\u201d No flowering of the cross. No big Easter dinner with extended family. The feeling of malaise is giving way to something darker. How are we to approach Easter this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s some remarkable irony there. Just think about that first Easter morning when Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb on the first day of the week just as the sun was rising. They were not going in the way you and I go to the Easter morning service with a great deal of expectation and hope, waiting to say, \u201cAlleluia, the Lord is risen,\u201d and hear one another say, \u201cHe is risen indeed, Alleluia!\u201d They were going with spices to anoint the buried body of Jesus. They were hardly in a mood of expectation, of joy, of hope. They were going there overwhelmed by life, overwhelmed with what they had lost, what they did not have, who they could not see, the one they could not hold.<\/p>\n

If we go through all of the Easter stories, one after another it is of Jesus appearing to a relatively small group of people. Not in a religious setting. Not in a synagogue, not in a temple, but in a home. It may be that we need to rediscover the power of the resurrection to lift us in the midst of our gloom, in the midst of our daily lives. It\u2019s not something we have to go to to experience him, but whenever we gather in his name, he can be among us. That\u2019s one aspect we need to cultivate and, perhaps, rediscover.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I will miss it too\u2014Easter morning at church. I will miss singing, \u201cWelcome happy morning.\u201d \u201cThe Day of Resurrection,\u201d all of those great Easter hymns. I think I can play them here at home. In fact, I think I will!<\/p>\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Happy #Easter<\/a>! Commemorating the Resurrection of Christ after his Crucifixion on Good Friday, Easter is one of the most important Christian holidays. This dynamic drawing by Rubens from 1614 shows Jesus rising from the tomb pic.twitter.com\/0XiN1fMvFI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 British Museum (@britishmuseum) April 1, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n